Are your chances better to have another child if you only had PE vs having HELLP? I hope that this makes sense. Some days I feel like I'm grasping at straws. Since I had HELLP with both pregnancies I probably I won't have another child but I was curious about this.

I don't think so. I just met with my perinatologist on Friday and she indicated that PE can be just as devastating to the body/baby as HELLP. She said that everyone thinks HELLP is a severe form of PE, which it is, but it can also occur outside of PE, on its own. Therefore, you ultimately could have a severe form of PE that is not HELLP but just as dangerous to the body/baby.

So, what I came away with from that visit: you don't want either PE or HELLP.

I'm sorry you had HELLP twice. I'm thinking about trying again after one HELLP/placental abruption/loss baby experience and am trying to remain non-anxious.

Are your chances better to have another child if you only had PE vs having HELLP? I hope that this makes sense. Some days I feel like I'm grasping at straws. Since I had HELLP with both pregnancies I probably I won't have another child but I was curious about this.

There are a lot of factors that go into whether you will develop preeclampsia again. Generally, yes, the less severe your preeclampsia experience (with HELLP being a much more severe variant of the disease even in its milder forms), the more likely you are to develop it in a future pregnancy. But, that's no guarantee either way. Some women with no history of PE may develop it in a later pregnancy, and some women with HELLP may only have it in a first pregnancy. Generally though, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist would watch you extra carefully if you had experienced HELLP in one or more than one pregnancies. Same with preeclampsia.

Director of Community Relations for the Preeclampsia Foundation*does not provide any medical advice*for more information, please visit www.preeclampsia.org